A Proactive Coating Plan can Save Your Clients Money - and Earn you Their Business for Life

Article 1 of 2 in a Series

2018-02-14

A couple weeks ago, I walked into my basement storage/boiler room and stepped right into a puddle of water at my feet. Uh-oh! The hot water heater was leaking. We called in the local plumber/HVAC guy for an estimate.

Along with presenting the estimated cost of replacing our water tank, the savvy plumber offered an equipment maintenance plan that includes regular inspections, discounts off service, etc.

Not a new concept, right? How many dealerships throw in a maintenance plan when financing your new car? Another local business – a disaster recovery service, restoring property when flooding happens – helps their clients create a safety and prevention plan.

The idea being that preventative, proactive maintenance is so much more controllable and cost-saving than waiting for something to go wrong… and then fixing it.

So then, how does that apply to concrete coatings, and your business?

Most of your customers likely have a reactive approach to managing their building's coatings. By helping your clients create a proactive plan, you build relationships and goodwill that turn into business.

But first, let's define a reactive versus proactive coating plan:

Terry Greenfield, a corrosion assessment leader with 40 years' experience in protective coatings across marine, oil and gas, transportation, military and other sectors, describes reactive coatings management programs in this Corrosionpedia article: "One is driven by degradation; the other is driven by available funding. Neither of these will end up being ultra-successful."

Managing coatings by looking at how degraded they are means that building owners and facilities managers focus coating maintenance on fixing damage - rather than extending coating life, or evaluating whether they have the best-fit, safest coating for the job.

And being driven solely by budget concerns leads to circumventing preventative maintenance or defining a problem as less serious than it is to avoid spending the money. This is a reactive approach - and in the long run, costs the client more.

"A proactive coatings management program," this Corrosionpedia article defines, "Collects condition data on every item in facilities in order to make smart decisions on maintenance. The key goals are to extend the service life of coatings, reduce costly unexpected downtime incidents, and increase safety of operations."

What would it mean for your business if you helped your clients accomplish those very goals: extend coating life, reduce downtime, and increase safety?

I know that with my plumber, by offering to keep an eye on the equipment in my home for me, it was a no-brainer yes. It was one less thing on my plate and built my trust in his services.

In the next article in the series, we'll walk step-by-step through exactly how to offer such a program to your clients - helping them to have a more proactive rather than reactive coating program, and you, to win their trust - and more business.

For help now with your coating projects - let us take one thing off your plate: choosing the best coating for the job. Click here to schedule a chat with one of our flooring experts to walk through your next project's specs.